If you are looking for various Elderberry recipes to experiment with, look no further than Wild Cottage.
Elderberry & clove cordial (also similar recipe here Elderberry cordial )
Blackberry & elderberry jelly
Elderberry wine
Elder bush remedies
Elderberry & ginger cold and flu remedy/cure all
The magic of elderberries
I'd love to know if you have any unusual elderberry recipes please.
I am adding new recipes all the time - please visit again.
Showing posts with label Homemade Wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homemade Wine. Show all posts
Friday, 12 September 2014
Monday, 21 April 2014
Dandelion Wine Recipe
"Dandelion wine is fermented sunshine"
Jack Keller (world renowned homemade wine expert)
At this time of year in the northern hemisphere, there are millions of bright yellow dandelions in the hedgerows and fields, as well as in our gardens. It's an annual Dandelion fest round here. The lawns are a carpet of bright yellow. And yes, I realise most people dig them up as weeds, or worse, weedkiller them.
But there are loads of wonderful things you can do with dandelions, the most fun one being making your own homemade wine !
Here's the recipe I use most for homemade Dandelion Wine. Its cheap to make, using mostly things you can easily get hold of.
When picking the flowers, remember that you only need the flower heads, and not the stems.
Note
Be very careful that you ONLY pick dandelion flowers in places away from roads (fumes from cars), and in gardens, fields or hedges that are not sprayed with pesticides or weedkillers. Or you will be drinking all that poison in your wine...
And wear rubber gloves when picking, unless you want the stem juice to stain your hands.
Dandelion Wine Recipe
My own adaptation from an original recipe by C J J Berry
3 litres (3 qts) whole Dandelion flower heads
1 kg (2 lbs 2 ozs) granulated White Sugar
0.5 kg (1 lb) Demerara Sugar
2 organic Lemons - organic as no wax & chemicals on them
2 organic Oranges - organic as no wax & chemicals on them
300 g (0.75 lb) Raisins
2 Tea Bags - normal black tea (minus the bags) - this is for the tannin
4.5 litres (1 gallon) Water - preferably no fluoride and non chlorinated
Wine yeast and yeast nutrient (not bread yeast)
IMPORTANT
Everything has to be sterilised every time it is used during wine making. Otherwise the wine will be bad, cloudy and taste disgusting ! This includes wooden spoons, demijohns, airlock - everything.
- Put the Dandelion flowers into a food grade while plastic bucket with a lid.
- Boil the water and pour it over the dandelion flowers. Make sure the lid is on tight.
- Leave to soak for 2 days. Stir once each day.
- Using a large saucepan/stainless steel pot. Put the entire mixture from the bucket into the saucepan.
- Add the sugars and the rind of the lemons and oranges (save the rest of the oranges in the fridge for later).
- Lightly boil for 1 hour (with the lid on).
- After 1 hour remove the pan from the heat and immediately add the raisins, then let it cool completely (not in the fridge).
- When it is totally cool, add the yeast, the yeast nutrient and the juice of the oranges.
- Transfer the contents of the saucepan into a demijohn, or a fermenting vessel, and add an airlock.
- Allow to ferment for 2 to 3 days.
- Strain the contents of the demijohn, then pour the resulting liquid into a different demijohn. Important - do not squeeze the pulp when straining, or else you will be adding extra particles to the wine.
- Add an airlock and leave to ferment in a warm place, out of direct sunlight. Fermentation has finished when there are no longer any bubbles going through the airlock.
- Rack off the wine into a clean demijohn and put in a bung to seal it.
- Leave to mature for 1 year in a cool, dark place.
- Bottle it !
If you want to know what a demijohn is, click HERE !
Friday, 30 October 2009
Rowan Berry Wine
I have had this recipe for years in an old book, and have never had access to rowan berries to make it !
This year I am on a mission to hunt some down - but I'm unsuccessful as yet...
Homemade wine is always fun and well worth the effort.
So here is the recipe (imperial not US measurements)
Rowan Berry Wine
4 pints of Rowan Berries
1 gallon (8 pints) Water
3 lbs white Sugar
1 lb Wheat
2 heaped tablespoons Raisins
Wine Yeast & Yeast Nutrient
1. Boil the water and pour it as soon as you can over the rowan berries, boiling if possible.
2. Let the rowan berries and the water stand for 5 days, covered. Stir them and mash them daily.
3. After 5 days put the sugar, chopped raisins and wheat into a very large bowl or similar. Strain the rowan berry mixture over the ingredients in the bowl and discard the bits or rowan berry mash once strained.
4. Stir it well until the sugar is dissolved.
5. Put a sachet, or a level teaspoon of the wine yeast into a small glass with a small bit of warm water and a teaspoon of sugar. Stir. After 15 minutes it will be foaming.
6. Put the foaming yeast mix into the rowan berry mix in a large covered bowl or food grade plastic bucket. Stir it in.
7. Leave for 7 days covered very well.
8. Then strain the liquid into a glass demijohn (fermenting jar), fit an airlock and leave until fermentation is finished (no more bubbles) and the wine is clear.
9. Rack the wine off into a clean demijohn. (To rack off is to syphon it off of the residue left in the bottom of the jar into a clean jar.) Sometimes you need to do this more than once every couple of months, until its clean and clear.
10. Leave in storage for at least 3 months after last racking.
11. Then bottle your wine.
It's best kept at least a year before drinking, but people rarely wait that long !
This year I am on a mission to hunt some down - but I'm unsuccessful as yet...
Homemade wine is always fun and well worth the effort.
So here is the recipe (imperial not US measurements)
Rowan Berry Wine
4 pints of Rowan Berries
1 gallon (8 pints) Water
3 lbs white Sugar
1 lb Wheat
2 heaped tablespoons Raisins
Wine Yeast & Yeast Nutrient
1. Boil the water and pour it as soon as you can over the rowan berries, boiling if possible.
2. Let the rowan berries and the water stand for 5 days, covered. Stir them and mash them daily.
3. After 5 days put the sugar, chopped raisins and wheat into a very large bowl or similar. Strain the rowan berry mixture over the ingredients in the bowl and discard the bits or rowan berry mash once strained.
4. Stir it well until the sugar is dissolved.
5. Put a sachet, or a level teaspoon of the wine yeast into a small glass with a small bit of warm water and a teaspoon of sugar. Stir. After 15 minutes it will be foaming.
6. Put the foaming yeast mix into the rowan berry mix in a large covered bowl or food grade plastic bucket. Stir it in.
7. Leave for 7 days covered very well.
8. Then strain the liquid into a glass demijohn (fermenting jar), fit an airlock and leave until fermentation is finished (no more bubbles) and the wine is clear.
9. Rack the wine off into a clean demijohn. (To rack off is to syphon it off of the residue left in the bottom of the jar into a clean jar.) Sometimes you need to do this more than once every couple of months, until its clean and clear.
10. Leave in storage for at least 3 months after last racking.
11. Then bottle your wine.
It's best kept at least a year before drinking, but people rarely wait that long !
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Elderberry Wine
I am a great believer in making the most of what is available for free in our hedgerows and fields. And at this time of year nature has an incredible abundance - it isn't known as harvest time for nothing.
Elderberries seem to be almost finishing where I live, so I am picking like mad to get as many as I can before they dry and drop from the branches.
I mostly make elderberry & clove cordial with them (see menu on the right under Elderberries or Cordials), but I also make a gallon or so of elderberry wine. I personally like a slightly sweeter elderberry wine than usual and the following is the recipe I use.
(Please remember all measurements are imperial as used in Britain and Ireland, as opposed to the US lbs etc. I will be adding a universal conversion chart to the blog soon.)
Elderberry Wine (Sweet)
3 lbs (1.5 kg) fresh Elderberries
3.5 lbs (1.7 kg) white Sugar
2 Lemons (organic as they do not have wax coatings on the skin and you don't want that in your wine!). Alternatively you can use 1 teaspoon of Citric Acid which is the same thing
1 gallon (4.5 litres) Water
Wine Yeast & Nutrient
1. Take the berries off of the stalks. This is fairly easy using a fork. Then weigh them to ensure that you have 3 lbs.
2. Crush the berries in a bowl.
3. Pour over the boiling water, stir, and then let it cool to about 21C (70F).
4. When at 21C put the crushed berries, the sliced lemons (or the citric acid), the yeast and yeast nutrient into a large food grade plastic bucket. I use one sachet of wine yeast for a gallon as I usually only make a gallon of a kind at a time. I believe 1 sachet of wine yeast is enough for up to 5 gallons though. Cover the bucket.
5. Leave this for 3 days, stirring it once a day then recovering the bucket.
6. After 3 days strain the mixture through a fine sieve (or muslin) onto the sugar. Mix the sugar into the liquid.
7. Put the liquid into a glass demijohn (preferably a dark one to preserve the colour). Do not fill the demijohn to the top as it will need room to ferment, instead put the excess liquid into sterilised wine bottles and put plenty of cotton wool (acts as an airlock) in the bottle necks. You will need this extra to top up the demijohn once fermentation stops and you 'rack off' the liquid from the remaining sediment.
8. Fit an airlock to the demijohn (and don't forget the bit of water in it).
9. Leave the demijohn and the bottles until fermentation is complete. Remember to label them with the flavour and the date ! Fermentation may take a while.
10. Once fermentation stops completely (no more bubbles rising at all), rack off the liquid from the sediment. This essentially means siphon it off into a clean, sterilised demijohn for further storage. This is where you can use the extra wine bottles with the cotton wool to top up.
11. Store the wine like this for about 6 months, and then bottle. Preferably into dark bottles to preserve the colour.
The wine can be drunk from about 9 months, but it is still very new then and will be far better if left at least a year, preferably more.
This particular recipe is adapted from one in 'First Steps in Winemaking', a book by the great C.J.J. Berry.
Elderberries seem to be almost finishing where I live, so I am picking like mad to get as many as I can before they dry and drop from the branches.
I mostly make elderberry & clove cordial with them (see menu on the right under Elderberries or Cordials), but I also make a gallon or so of elderberry wine. I personally like a slightly sweeter elderberry wine than usual and the following is the recipe I use.
(Please remember all measurements are imperial as used in Britain and Ireland, as opposed to the US lbs etc. I will be adding a universal conversion chart to the blog soon.)
Elderberry Wine (Sweet)
3 lbs (1.5 kg) fresh Elderberries
3.5 lbs (1.7 kg) white Sugar
2 Lemons (organic as they do not have wax coatings on the skin and you don't want that in your wine!). Alternatively you can use 1 teaspoon of Citric Acid which is the same thing
1 gallon (4.5 litres) Water
Wine Yeast & Nutrient
1. Take the berries off of the stalks. This is fairly easy using a fork. Then weigh them to ensure that you have 3 lbs.
2. Crush the berries in a bowl.
3. Pour over the boiling water, stir, and then let it cool to about 21C (70F).
4. When at 21C put the crushed berries, the sliced lemons (or the citric acid), the yeast and yeast nutrient into a large food grade plastic bucket. I use one sachet of wine yeast for a gallon as I usually only make a gallon of a kind at a time. I believe 1 sachet of wine yeast is enough for up to 5 gallons though. Cover the bucket.
5. Leave this for 3 days, stirring it once a day then recovering the bucket.
6. After 3 days strain the mixture through a fine sieve (or muslin) onto the sugar. Mix the sugar into the liquid.
7. Put the liquid into a glass demijohn (preferably a dark one to preserve the colour). Do not fill the demijohn to the top as it will need room to ferment, instead put the excess liquid into sterilised wine bottles and put plenty of cotton wool (acts as an airlock) in the bottle necks. You will need this extra to top up the demijohn once fermentation stops and you 'rack off' the liquid from the remaining sediment.
8. Fit an airlock to the demijohn (and don't forget the bit of water in it).
9. Leave the demijohn and the bottles until fermentation is complete. Remember to label them with the flavour and the date ! Fermentation may take a while.
10. Once fermentation stops completely (no more bubbles rising at all), rack off the liquid from the sediment. This essentially means siphon it off into a clean, sterilised demijohn for further storage. This is where you can use the extra wine bottles with the cotton wool to top up.
11. Store the wine like this for about 6 months, and then bottle. Preferably into dark bottles to preserve the colour.
The wine can be drunk from about 9 months, but it is still very new then and will be far better if left at least a year, preferably more.
This particular recipe is adapted from one in 'First Steps in Winemaking', a book by the great C.J.J. Berry.
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